An engineering viewpoint on biological robustness

作者：Khammash Mustafa^*

来源：BMC Biology, 2016, 14(1): 22.

DOI：10.1186/s12915-016-0241-x

In his splendid article "Can a biologist fix a radio? - or, what I learned while studying apoptosis," Y. Lazebnik argues that when one uses the right tools, similarity between a biological system, like a signal transduction pathway, and an engineered system, like a radio, may not seem so superficial. Here I advance this idea by focusing on the notion of robustness as a unifying lens through which to view complexity in biological and engineered systems. I show that electronic amplifiers and gene expression circuits share remarkable similarities in their dynamics and robustness properties. I explore robustness features and limitations in biology and engineering and highlight the role of negative feedback in shaping both.

• 出版日期2016-3-23